It has taken SEVEN YEARS aboard Khan Academy to do it, but today I finally got the animated hullabaloo that shows I have completed 8th Grade Math.

Long ago, in a high school far, far away, a certain math "teacher" destroyed our Grade 11 Math class.  He used us ("used" being the operative word) to conduct a "study".  The methodology consisted of giving us ZERO feedback for an entire year.  We handed in assignments, we took quizzes, we wrote exams and . . . nothing.  No grades, no comments, NOTHING.  We simply got a final grade at the end of the year.

Then came Grade 12.  Our new physics teacher had to teach the necessary math from scratch.  I don't recall who our Grade 12 Math teacher was.  Anyway, in Physics Mr Sellers passed out our first test, and the highest mark in class was something like 67%, from a student who was (literally) a genius.  I got 63%, and I was used to straight A's (and I've been known to correct the formulation of exams themselves).

I had wanted to be an astronomer.  That was now no longer on my radar.  I went into languages -- which I do not regret.  But I wonder what life would have been like if I had been able to get the math background I needed.  Ironically, when I entered university, my university had a faculty mentorship program, where individual students were matched with a faculty member to facilitate our learning.  Guess who I was matched with?  An astronomer!  I was too ashamed to even go round to meet him.

So most of a lifetime later, here I am at Khan Academy.  There have been long gaps and lapses. which is why it's taken SEVEN YEARS.  But I went all the way back to the beginning (yes, I did Grade one!!!).  What little math I had retained was based on rote, not on understanding.  By going back to the beginning, I found I was able to build genuine understanding of concepts.  I was able to build a solid foundation, something I never got in school.  Khan lessons taught me amazing flexibility in how I approach calculations, how I analyze a problem.

Two years ago, when hiring painters to paint the exterior of my house, one of the estimators was trying to calculate the coverage area of a (gabled) exterior wall with one window.  I literally ran the calculation in my head without touching a measuring tape or a calculator:  knowing the width of the siding boards and a quick count gave me the vertical height.  Knowing the width of the house from memory gave me that dimension.  I knocked off the area of the window, added the isosceles triangle for the gable, and blurted out the area BEFORE THE PAINTER HAD FINISHED ENTERING DATA INTO HER CALCULATOR.

She kind of gaped at me, and asked, "How did you do that?"

How?  Khan!  (Ooops, I think I just discovered a new slogan:  Yes we KHAAAAN! -- It's yours, for free, like the lessons that have benefited me in so very many ways.)

My only question now is, having completed Grade 8, how do I map my way forward through the rest of the world of math?  Where to next?

I should also add that many of the topics covered in Gr 1 - 8 at Khan were never covered at all in my first 8 years of math, some not in 12 years.  In particular, statistics and probability was never introduced; functions, domains and ranges were completely new and brain-bustingly hard to grasp, but hey -- I'm learning.  The "word problems"  remind me of the Schaum's Outline series which was recommended to us for "extra study", but not in our math curriculum per se:  the stuff in our math books was largely esoteric theory.  I STILL have a strong (amateur) interest in astronomy, near-earth-objects (NEOs) and space flight.  The introduction to statistics and probability was intriguing; I enjoy analyzing data and finding patterns in information.

As supplements to my Khan studies, I've discovered the amazing Marcus DuSautoy and his "Story of Maths" video series. 
https://topdocumentaryfilms.com/the-story-of-maths/

Then there's Max Tegmark's boisterous, totally enthusiastic approach to hugely complex subjects in his,
"Our Mathematical Universe"
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19395553-our-mathematical-universe

And Rudy Rucker's approaches to computation and philosophy in his "The Lifebox, the Seashell and the Soul."
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/274042.The_Lifebox_the_Seashell_and_the_Soul?ac=1&from_search=true

And the story of Ramanujan, "The Man Who Knew Infinity" (movie and book):
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0787524/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

And of course, Eddy Redmayne's portrayal of Stephen Hawking in "The Theory of Everything"
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0787524/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

and Benedict Cumberbatch and Derek Jacobi's different portrayals of Alan Turing:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2084970/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0115749/?ref_=nv_sr_1?ref_=nv_sr_1

None of the above would have been on my "to do" list without Khan Academy.  DuSautoy, Tegmark and Rucker demonstrate that maths (and mathematicians) can be real people in the real world -- and enjoy the challenges and opportunities inherent in maths.

PS:  Maybe Khan Academy could have a course that is just "movies about maths"???

Anyway, thanks a bunch.  I'm still bouncing off the ceiling about having (at looooong last!) "graduatated" from 8th Grade maths.